The District’s Housing Equity Report has been released Tuesday, laying out new targets for Mayor Muriel Bowser, who is planning to build 36,000 new housing units, including 12,000 affordable ones, by the year 2025.
With the new plans, D.C. has become the first city in the country to have area-specific goals for affordable housing, as well as “to dedicate an entire initiative to examining the barriers and opportunities within each area,” according to a statement issued by the Mayor’s Office.
“What both the Housing Equity Report and the updated Comprehensive Plan recognize is that housing is a citywide challenge that requires citywide solutions,” said Mayor Bowser, adding that the plans were focused on balancing competing interests while the city is put through a change towards the goals in question.
D.C. Office of Planning (DCOP) and the D.C. Department of Housing and Community Development (DHCD) teamed up to put together the Housing Equity Report, which consists of an analysis of the current situation in the District relating to affordable housing distribution.
The report suggested particular targets involving various areas of the District, in order to help reach Bowser’s goal of creating 36,000 new homes by 2025, 12,000 which are planned to be occupied by low-income residents.
#36000by2025 pic.twitter.com/XTTbhphWDu
— Mayor Muriel Bowser (@MayorBowser) October 16, 2019
The draft Comprehensive Plan proposal, which outlines a long-term vision on the city’s growth and change, was also released by Bowser on the same day. Housing, equity, resilience, and leveraging public resources were tackled in the proposed plan as crucial issues.
“Mayor Bowser recognizes the urgency of addressing housing affordability and opportunity. She has pushed the District to use all of our affordable housing tools to ensure an economically diverse future,” Andrew Trueblood, DCOP Director, was quoted as saying.
“With the Comprehensive Plan and the Housing Equity Report, we can be intentional about how and where we change, and how we balance competing interests in order to ensure a vibrant, equitable and resilient city for our future,” continued Trueblood.
The mayor’s efforts on affordable housing were also praised by Interim Deputy Mayor for Planning and Economic Development John Falcicchio, who said “Mayor Bowser has challenged us to create a more inclusive city, one that gives all residents a fair shot at a pathway to the middle class.”